Utah State gymnast Rebecca Wells. Photo by Robert K. Scott
LOGAN, Utah – Utah State’s 25th-ranked gymnastics team has been selected to compete at the Norman Regional, hosted by No. 1 Oklahoma, on March 30-April 2, the NCAA announced Tuesday morning.
Joining the Aggies and Sooners, who earned the nation’s No. 1 overall seed, at the Norman Regional will be No. 8 Minnesota, No. 9 California, No. 16 Arizona State, No. 18 Arkansas, No. 24 Boise State, Arizona and West Virginia. The nine-team field will compete at the Lloyd Noble Center.
“We are thrilled to get our second-consecutive bid for regionals,” said fifth-year Utah State head coach Amy Smith. “We are excited coming off of winning the conference championship and finding out that we get the same rotation order that we just won with. Obviously, we are very comfortable with that and just excited to get out there and parlay Thursday into Saturday.”
The Aggies (14-9) will compete in session one of the second round on Thursday, March 31, at noon (MT) against Cal, Boise State and Minnesota.
Arizona and West Virginia will compete head-to-head on Wednesday, March 30. The winner of that dual meet will then advance to the second round of competition on Thursday, to compete against Oklahoma, Arizona State and Arkansas in the evening session, beginning at 6 o’clock (MT).
“It is going to be a great competition, but I think we have a really good chance, and we proved that on Saturday,” Smith said.
The top two finishing teams of each semifinal will advance to the NCAA Regional Final on Saturday, April 2, at 4 p.m. (MT). Following Saturday’s competition, the top two finishers from the four regionals (Auburn, Alabama; Norman; Raleigh, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington) will advance to the 2022 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 14-16.
The Aggies have faced four of the eight teams this season in Arizona, Boise State, Minnesota and Oklahoma, and are 2-3 against the field.
In addition to qualifying teams, Utah State will face individual all-around competitors and event qualifiers from Eastern Michigan, Ball State, Illinois State, Lindenwood, Penn and Penn State.
The Aggies will be competing in their 27th regional. USU’s best finish at the NCAA Regionals was in 1999, when it hosted Georgia, Florida, Denver, Minnesota and Iowa State, and placed third.
In its last outing, Utah State captured its first-ever Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference championship as the Aggies recorded a 197.025 last Saturday at ExtraMile Arena in Boise, Idaho.
With their season-high-score, which ranks second all-time in school history, the Aggies notched their sixth conference title overall, including their first since 2005 (Western Gymnastics Conference).
For more information on the Utah State gymnastics program, follow the Aggies on Twitter at @USUGymnastics, on Facebook at UtahStateGymnastics and on Instagram at USUGymnastics.
